London Luxury Gains Visibility

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 10/16/2006 12:00:00 AM

New Rochelle, N.Y. —

London Luxury is beginning to raise its profile, the next step in a disciplined, strategic growth plan in place since its founding over six years ago.

The company recently opened a New York showroom at 295 Fifth Avenue and brought on board industry vet Lee Dubin as senior vp for sales and marketing. Dubin spent the last 18 years at Springs, with prior stints at Pillowtex and Cannon Mills.

The biggest piece of London Luxury's business is done is bath towels, bath mats, bath rugs and robes, but it also develops utility bedding and sheeting. London Luxury's market position is high quality/high value at the upper end of the “better” level and in the “best” level for specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, dot.com retailers and boutiques.

“We make the best product in the marketplace at the best price,” said ceo Marc Jason. “Can someone make a cheaper towel than us? Yes. But not at our quality.”

The company operates offices in Shanghai, Istanbul and Israel, and develops product out of India. Jason goes on site to the factory for every major rollout, he said. “Although we have our own presence in each country where we manufacture, I choose to make it a priority to personally inspect at every stage of production. I want to tell the customer, “I saw them load the container.'”

London Luxury looks for ways to turn commodity items into value-added, said Dubin. “We re-direct. We say why not take that 400-count sheet and make it an allergen barrier? It's about the bells and whistles — from packaging to construction to marketing.”

Its strategy is to align “with retailers that are financially winning the game every day,” said Jason.

Although the company is not well known among its many competitors, “We ship literally thousands of stores each week,” Jason said. London Luxury has very quietly participated in the New York Home Textiles Markets by taking a hotel suite, keeping its name off the supplier roster in the lobby, and inviting only select retailers. It opened the showroom in August, Jason said, “because our customers asked us to.”

“The timing is right,” added Dubin. “We've made great inroads, and we still have a long way to go.”